Google just launched a tool for businesses to build simple cloud apps
Google is launching a new tool that will help companies build custom business apps that run on Google's cloud platform.
Called App Maker, the tool promises to let businesses build simple cloud apps in a couple of days using a drag-and-drop environment, with minimal coding experience required. It's geared toward customers of Google's G Suite (formerly Google Apps), and seems most useful for organizations that need apps that integrate with information stored in G Suite, such as contacts or mapping data, but can be used for other simple cloud apps as well.
In a video accompanying the launch blog, for instance, a developer at the State of Wyoming talk about how it took him only 5 weeks with App Maker to build an app to monitor logins for suspicious activity.
Google wrote in a blog post announcing the news that it's already tested the tool with some of its larger enterprise clients, who have built apps for tracking suspicious login activity, tracking office inventory orders, and digitizing claims processes.
App Maker is available starting Wednesday through Google's Early Adopter Program.
Back in September, Google changed the name of its productivity tools - which includes Gmail, Drive, Hangouts, and Calendar - to G Suite. Google is also adding new "recommended for G Suite" partners like DocuSign and Asana, writing on its blog that the new features will help "customize and extend" the experience of using G Suite.